


Purple, red, blue, and pink

by sloganeer



Series: Nicky [3]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-06-10
Updated: 2003-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-09 09:51:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sloganeer/pseuds/sloganeer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sun is shining bright on a Metropolis Sunday afternoon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Purple, red, blue, and pink

**Author's Note:**

> for ljuser=slodwick. Prompt: well, oak, shine, float.

Metropolis isn't like a lot of other cities. 'Too clean,' Wally always says when the League comes to town. You can feel the dirt in Edge City, and Gotham always seems dark. You always feel there's something for you to do there.

The sun is shining bright on a Metropolis Sunday afternoon, and Clark doesn't need its power at all. Today, the sun just makes him lazy.

Nicky turns back to wave at Clark on the bench. "Look, Daddy! They're floating."

They made the boats last night after Nicky found the pattern in a stack of old magazines Clark found in the garage. He had gone to raid Lex's office for cardboard, and had come back with Lex himself. Lex glanced over the pattern, then got that look in his eyes. The boats got bigger, cardboard was discarded for the wood scraps found under a shelf. Clark stopped him when Lex began planning out board motors.

They were up past midnight - Lex twice went back to oak before settling on the lighter cedar - and when Clark convinced him to go to bed, they only just remembered Nicky, asleep on a pile of old dropclothes.

The boats were ready by mid-morning, four of them lined up on the kitchen counter when Lois arrived. Purple, red, blue, and pink - all with sails cut from an old flannel shirt Clark gladly sacrificed for the cause.

The laugh beside him on the bench is distinctly Lois. She's watching Nicky at the edge of the pond, jumping up and down, while Lex tries to rescue the pink boat before it runs away.

Lois didn't complain about being the pink boat, but Clark apologises for always making her play the girl. 'Well, at least I'm not the purple one,' she said, just loud enough for Lex to hear.

Lex is soaking wet now, and Nicky splashing him isn't helping. He stands up in the foot of water, holding the pink boat triumphantly. Clark and Lois get up to join them at the edge of the pond.

"Why didn't he get you to do that?" Lois asks.

Clark looks down at the bench; there's a plaque, a dedication 'to better times'. "There are some things you just have to do on your own," he tells her, and tries to imagine a time much better than this.


End file.
